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Microsoft's 'Mico' personality upgrade
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Good morning, AI enthusiasts. Microsoft’s Clippy virtual paperclip wasn’t the most appreciated assistant, but it may have just been ahead of its time.
Microsoft’s just introduced ‘Mico’, a companion that aims to bring a new visual personality to Copilot — alongside new features built for the “human-centered” AI push, helping carve the company’s own identity beyond OpenAI's shadow.
Reminder: Our next live workshop is today at 4 PM EST — join and learn the importance of context engineering and how to incorporate the core skill into your AI workflows. RSVP here.
In today’s AI rundown:
Copilot’s personality upgraded with ‘Mico’
OpenAI acquires Mac automation startup
Turn spreadsheet data into insights with Copilot Vision
Netflix ‘all in’ on AI for advertising, production
4 new AI tools, community workflows, and more
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
MICROSOFT
👋 Copilot’s personality upgraded with ‘Mico’
Image source: Microsoft
The Rundown: Microsoft just hosted its Fall Release event and introduced ‘Mico’, an animated blob avatar that gives Copilot a visual personality — alongside the launch of new personalization features, health initiatives, browser automation, and more.
The details:
Mico appears as an animated orb that shifts colors based on tone, with an Easter egg that morphs it into the classic ‘Clippy’ when repeatedly tapped.
Copilot introduces features like Memory & Personalization for recall, connectors for new data links, and Proactive Actions for more hands-on help.
The assistant is also getting Groups, allowing for real-time collaboration with up to 32 people across AI tasks.
Health upgrades include medical responses based on Harvard Health sources, along with the ability to help locate doctors based on specific preferences.
Copilot Mode gets several new features in Microsoft’s Edge browser, including Actions for multi-step workflows and Journeys for returning to old projects.
Why it matters: Microsoft returns to its Clippy roots (love the Easter egg) with a new mascot/companion for the AI era. With its new personalization and ‘human-centered’ efforts, the tech giant is forging even more of an AI identity separate from the company’s hot and cold relationship with OpenAI. Watch the full Fall Release here.
TOGETHER WITH STACKAI
⌛️Enterprise AI with the fastest time to value
The Rundown: StackAI is the no-code, drag-and-drop building platform for enterprise AI. Easily design and deploy powerful AI agents to automate tedious tasks, all with white-glove support from AI experts.
StackAI allows you to:
Leverage integrations with 100+ enterprise tools
Export as a chatbot, form, API, and more
Manage roles, control feature access, and monitor analytics
OPENAI
💻 OpenAI acquires Mac automation startup
Image source: OpenAI
The Rundown: OpenAI just acquired Software Applications Incorporated, the startup behind unreleased Mac automation tool Sky — bringing on the team that created the iOS app (Workflow) that eventually became Apple Shortcuts after a 2017 acquisition.
The details:
Sky operates as a floating AI interface on Mac desktops, analyzing screen content and executing tasks across applications.
OAI plans to integrate Sky's macOS capabilities into ChatGPT, potentially enabling the assistant to control desktop apps and automate workflows natively.
The acquisition comes on the heels of OpenAI’s Atlas browser release this week, which is currently a Mac-only application.
The move also adds to OpenAI’s list of recent acqui-hires that includes startups Statsig, Context AI, Roi, Multi, Crossing Minds, and Alex.
Why it matters: While the initial reception to Atlas has been mixed, OAI is clearly moving to position itself as the AI layer for Mac users — all before the tech giant even gets its own strategy together. The move also follows the acqui-hire trend that has seen AI labs bring on full, specialized teams to raise talent in specific product areas.
AI TRAINING
📊 Turn spreadsheet data into insights with Copilot Vision
The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to use Microsoft Copilot Desktop's Voice and Vision features to analyze Google Sheets or Excel data hands-free, asking questions aloud and getting instant insights without typing formulas.
Step-by-step:
Install Microsoft Copilot from Microsoft Store (Windows) or App Store (macOS 14.0+/M1 chip), open the app, and sign in with your Microsoft account
Go to Settings via profile icon, toggle on "Voice Mode" and "Copilot Vision", then open your Google Sheets/Excel file in the browser
Say "Hey Copilot", click the specs icon (eye glasses) on the toolbar to enable Vision mode — Copilot scans and confirms it sees your data
Ask analysis questions: "What's the most revenue-generating product?" or "Calculate total revenue" - Copilot highlights cells and explains calculations
Close the toolbar, then prompt: "Draft a professional analysis report with Executive Summary, Top Performers table, and Key Insights"
Pro tip: Use this workflow for learning new skills, reading technical documents, or studying articles.
PRESENTED BY MONGODB
🤖 Build AI Agents with MongoDB
The Rundown: AI agents are reshaping how startups build intelligent products, and MongoDB is the engine that makes it possible. As a unified vector and document database, MongoDB helps your agents think, plan, and remember.
MongoDB gives your AI agents:
Vector & Hybrid Search for smarter context
Short & long-term memory in one place
Unified platform from prototype to scale
Turn your next big idea into an intelligent product with MongoDB.
NETFLIX
📺 Netflix ‘all in’ on AI for advertising, production
Image source: Midjourney
The Rundown: Netflix executives declared that the streaming giant is going “all in” on AI during the company’s earnings call this week across both business operations and content production, coming despite the broader industry’s continued skepticism.
The details:
Netflix outlined plans to deploy AI across recommendations, advertising, and production workflows, saying the company is “well positioned” for the AI boom.
Several Netflix productions have already incorporated the tech for uses like age-reversing and experimenting with wardrobe and set concept ideation.
CEO Ted Sarandos said he isn’t worried about AI replacing creativity, believing the tech will help creators “tell stories better, faster, and in new ways.”
He also said, “AI can give creatives better tools to enhance experiences for our members, but it doesn’t automatically make you a great storyteller if you’re not.”
Why it matters: Between AI actors, feuds with OpenAI over Sora, constant battles with Hollywood unions, and backlash from fans, AI’s transition into entertainment has been anything but smooth. But as advances continue, the balancing act between companies like Netflix, talent, and fans will only get more difficult.
QUICK HITS
🛠️ Trending AI Tools
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🌎 HunyuanWorld-Mirror - Create 3D worlds from text, image, or video
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✍️ Spiral - Every’s new AI writing partner with taste
*Sponsored Listing
📰 Everything else in AI today
OpenAI’s head of Sora, Bill Peebles, announced new upgrades coming to the AI video tool, including character cameos, video editing, and community improvements.
Stability AI unveiled a new partnership with Electronic Arts, bringing AI models and tools to the company’s game design process.
OpenAI introduced Company Knowledge, a new feature for ChatGPT Enterprise, Business, and Edu users that helps consolidate information across apps.
Anthropic rolled out Claude’s memory feature to Max users, allowing the assistant to remember previous conversations and create specific context for individual projects.
Lightricks launched LTX-2, an open-source AI video model with native 4K generations, synchronized audio, and up to 15-second outputs.
COMMUNITY
🤝 Community AI workflows
Every newsletter, we showcase how a reader is using AI to work smarter, save time, or make life easier.
Today’s workflow comes from reader Canaan M. in Sprague River, OR:
"I own a small upholstery business and specifically use ChatGPT to generate ideas for blog posts, competitor analysis of my business compared to other shops in the area, and image generation for custom seat designs and vehicle additions."
How do you use AI? Tell us here.
🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events
Read our last AI newsletter: Open letter demands ASI freeze
Read our last Tech newsletter: ‘ChatGPT for doctors’ hits $6B
Read our last Robotics newsletter: Amazon's massive robot hiring spree
Today’s AI tool guide: Turn data into insights with Copilot Vision
RSVP to our next workshop @ 4PM EST today: Learn Context Engineering
See you soon,
Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — the humans behind The Rundown
Amazon's massive robot hiring spree
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Good morning, robotics enthusiasts. Amazon is planning to replace more than half a million workers with robots by 2033, according to leaked documents that outline automating 75% of operations while saving billions.
The warehouse of the future, if Amazon’s plan holds, looks to be a robot empire. But the fate of the humans who once filled them? That’s a harder question.
In today’s robotics rundown:
Amazon to replace 600K U.S. job with robots
Musk says he wants control over Tesla’s ‘robot army’
Water-blasting drones fight fires autonomously
Noetix debuts ‘family-friendly’ humanoid for $1.4K
Quick hits on other robotics news
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
AMAZON
📦 Amazon to replace 600K U.S. jobs with robots
Image source: Amazon
The Rundown: Amazon plans to cut 600K U.S. jobs, replacing humans with robots across three-quarters of its operations, according to leaked documents seen by The New York Times. Morgan Stanley says the switch could save the retail giant $4B a year.
The details:
Amazon’s roadmap targets avoiding more than 600K new U.S. hires by 2033, including about 160K roles it would otherwise need as early as 2027.
The company reportedly aims to automate roughly 75% of its operations through next‑gen facilities that already run with skeleton crews.
Projected savings: 30 cents per package and $12.6B between 2025–2027, according to the NYT, with Morgan Stanley suggesting $4B a year.
Internal communications advised teams to scrub terms like “automation” and “AI” from public messaging, opting for “advanced technology” and “cobots.”
Why it matters: Amazon is pushing back on the report, noting it plans to recruit 250K workers for the holiday season and has tripled its U.S. headcount since 2018 to nearly 1.2M. Meanwhile, its Shreveport, LA site already deploys 1K robots and runs with 25% fewer workers — a template Amazon plans to replicate across 40 sites by 2027.
TESLA
🤯 Musk says he wants control over Tesla’s ‘robot army’
Image source: Tesla
The Rundown: Elon Musk says he needs investors to approve a $1T payday so he can keep control of Tesla’s “robot army” — yes, really. As the EV business scrapes out a modest rebound, he’s doubling down on Optimus and robotaxis for Tesla’s future.
The details:
On this week’s Q3 earnings call, Musk pressed investors to back a proposed $1T pay package and his authority to “control” Tesla's emerging “robot army.”
Musk says Optimus will become an “incredible surgeon” and, paired with robotaxis, claims Tesla’s robots could help build a world without poverty.
Tesla shares dropped after hours following the earnings report, with Musk hyping robotaxis and Optimus rather than core EV fundamentals.
Musk says Tesla is aiming to demo its next‑gen “Optimus V3” in Q1 2026.
Why it matters: Musk is effectively asking shareholders to fund his pivot from carmaker to robotics empire, betting Tesla’s future on unproven humanoid tech while threatening to walk if they refuse. If investors balk, it could show waning confidence in his ability to deliver moonshots while the core EV business stalls.
SENECA
🔥 Water-blasting drones fight fires autonomously
Image source: Seneca
The Rundown: Sausalito startup Seneca raised $60M to build autonomous, water‑cannon drones that self‑launch to attack wildfires before they spread. After putting out test burns, Seneca is aiming for its first real‑world deployments next year.
The details:
The drones self‑dispatch, fly autonomously, and pummel wildfires with dual water cannons engineered for rapid knockdowns.
Seneca targets sub‑10‑minute response from remote launch sites, using heavy‑lift airframes that haul 100 lb. payloads and blast water at over 100 PSI.
The startup says that five-drone teams can lay around 1,280 feet of foam perimeter with precision, boxing in small fires before they run amok.
A five‑drone kit is priced from the high six figures into the low seven figures, undercutting helicopter sorties for initial attack.
Why it matters: California’s fire season now runs year-round, with the state losing over 4M acres in 2020 alone and climate change pushing ignition risk higher. Seneca’s drones could rewrite response by wiping out blazes in their first critical minutes — that narrow window that separates a contained burn from an unstoppable inferno.
NOETIX ROBOTICS
🤖 Noetix debuts ‘family-friendly’ humanoid for $1.4K
Image source: Noetix
The Rundown: Beijing startup Noetix Robotics just unveiled Bumi, a lightweight, child-sized humanoid priced under CN¥ 10K (about $1,370) that can walk, balance, and even dance — squarely aimed at classrooms and living rooms, not research labs.
The details:
Bumi stands 3' 1" tall, weighs 26 lb., and at $1,370 claims to be the first “high-performance” humanoid under the CN¥ 10K threshold.
Noetix says the robot walks, balances, and dances with bipedal stability and coordinated movement designed for everyday spaces.
Built with lightweight composites and a self-developed motion control stack, Bumi pairs an open programming interface with voice interaction.
Power comes from a 48V battery (over 3.5Ah) delivering roughly 1–2 hours of runtime, as per launch materials; presale kicks off on Singles’ Day, Nov. 11.
Why it matters: Pricing a capable humanoid below $1.5K undercuts even China's cheapest models and costs a fraction of U.S.-available options like the $16K Unitree G1 or Tesla's projected $20K–$30 Optimus. If Bumi finds traction in schools and homes, expect Western robotics firms to scramble for their own sub-$2K response.
QUICK HITS
📰 Everything else in robotics today
Amazon unveiled Blue Jay, a system of robotic arms that merges three warehouse stations into one so it can pick, sort, stow, and consolidate items simultaneously.
Elon Musk predicts that Tesla will remove the safety monitor from its robotaxis by year-end and launch a robotaxi service in 8–10 new markets by the end of 2025.
South Korea's massive Future Innovation Technology Expo is showcasing flying taxis, humanoids, and autonomous vehicles across 2K booths in Daegu.
Serve Robotics, a developer of sidewalk delivery bots, agreed to sell more than 6M shares in a registered direct offering expected to raise about $100M.
China’s UBTECH says this year’s orders for its Walker humanoid series have surpassed CN¥ 630M (about $88M).
Walmart has created a new executive role to oversee delivery drones and other autonomous fulfillment tech, naming company veteran Greg Cathey to lead the effort.
Shenzhen-based Leju Robotics raised $207M in pre‑IPO funding to speed humanoid development and scale manufacturing.
NC State researchers 3D‑printed paper‑thin magnetic films that, when attached to origami, act as “muscles” and move under magnetic fields without hindering folding.
COMMUNITY
🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events
Read our last AI newsletter: Open letter demands ASI freeze
Read our last Tech newsletter: 'ChatGPT for doctors' hits $6B
Read our last Robotics newsletter: Unitree's 'bionic face' humanoid
Today’s AI tool guide: Create an email campaign generator with Build
RSVP to our next workshop @ 4PM EST Friday: Learn context engineering
See you soon,
Rowan, Jennifer, and Joey—The Rundown’s editorial team
Open letter demands ASI freeze
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Good morning, AI enthusiasts. A new open letter demanding a halt to superintelligence development has emerged, and the signatures include some new heavy hitters.
But while AI godfathers Bengio and Hinton join forces with tech figures, politicians, celebrities, and more, the absence of those from frontier labs speaks volumes — making it hard to stop a race when none of the runners agree to pause.
In today’s AI rundown:
Open letter demands halt to superintelligence development
Amazon deploys AI-powered glasses for delivery drivers
Create an email campaign generator with Build mode
Meta trims 600 jobs across AI division
4 new AI tools, community workflows, and more
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
ASI
🚨Open letter demands halt to superintelligence development
Image source: Future of Life Institute
The Rundown: Public figures across tech and politics have signed a Future of Life Institute letter demanding governments prohibit superintelligence development until it's proven controllable and the public approves its creation.
The details:
The letter cites concerns including ‘human economic obsolescence,’ ‘losses of freedom, civil liberties, dignity, and control,’ and ‘potential human extinction.’
Leadership from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, xAI, and Meta were absent, though current OAI staffer Leo Gao was included in the signatories.
The org also released data showing that 64% of Americans want ASI work halted until proven safe, with just 5% preferring unregulated advances.
Others featured included ‘godfathers of AI’ Yoshua Bengio and Geoffrey Hinton, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, and Virgin’s Richard Branson.
Why it matters: This isn’t the first public push against AI acceleration, but the calls seem to be getting louder. But with all of the frontier labs notably missing and a still vague notion of both what a “stop” to development looks like and how to even define ASI, this is another effort that may end up drawing more publicity than real action.
TOGETHER WITH TRIPLE WHALE
📈 Supercharge your BFCM performance with AI Agents
The Rundown: During Black Friday and Cyber Monday, every second counts — and brands that rely on manual analysis are already behind. Learn how to use AI agents to turn this holiday season’s data chaos into decisive, profitable execution.
Triple Whale’s free guide shows you how to:
Detect performance shifts in minutes, not hours
Automate campaign optimizations in real time
Build an agent-powered command center before the holiday rush
AMAZON
📦 Amazon deploys AI-powered glasses for delivery drivers
Image source: Amazon
The Rundown: Amazon just introduced new smartglasses for its delivery fleet that project navigation instructions and package info directly into a driver’s vision, marking the e-commerce giant’s latest infusion of AI tech into its efficiency push.
The details:
The glasses display turn-by-turn directions, package scanning data, and delivery confirmations, eliminating constant phone checking during deliveries.
Drivers wear a controller clipped to their vest containing swappable batteries for all-day operation, plus an emergency button for immediate assistance.
Amazon said future versions will detect wrong-address drop-offs in real time, ID hazards like pets, and adjust display brightness for low-light conditions.
Why it matters: These glasses look like the visual interface sci-fi has long predicted, with the ‘augmentation’ of human workers equipped with real-time data and insights. Efficiency gains are clear, but workplace surveillance and constant digital guidance concerns could determine if this becomes standard across industries.
AI TRAINING
📧 Create an email campaign generator with Build mode
The Rundown: Build a complete email campaign generator using Google AI Studio’s Build Mode, turning a simple idea into a working web app with copywriting and image generation in minutes.
Step-by-step:
Open Google AI Studio chat mode with Gemini 2.5 Pro and prompt: “Create a product requirements doc for an email campaign generator tool. List key features, user flow in bullet points under 100 words”
Click “Build” tab, enable “AI Powered Chatbot” and “Generate Images with a Prompt,” then paste: “Build an email campaign generator based on this PRD: [your PRD]. Include chatbot for copy refinements and image generation for 3 campaign visuals”
Hit “Build” and wait 1–2 minutes, then click “Preview” to test with inputs like “Holiday gadget sale” — verify it generates 3 subject lines, HTML email body, and 3 banner images
Refine outputs by prompting “Make subject lines more urgent” or “Regenerate images with warmer colors” in the chatbot
Click “Share” icon, toggle “Publish your App,” copy the link to share with your team — anyone can generate campaigns without dev skills
Pro tip: Repurpose this workflow for other marketing tools by swapping the PRD for a social media caption generator, blog post outliner, or ad copy brainstormer. The same process works for any content creation tool you need.
PRESENTED BY IBM
💡3 actions to help boost agentic AI impact
The Rundown: Businesses face many challenges going from AI ambition to implementation. Success requires more than adopting new technology. It involves intentionally aligning AI with workflows, data, and goals. As AI evolves into a business-wide opportunity, leaders must ensure the right AI is applied to the right challenges.
Explore IBM’s playbook on 3 challenges & approaches to boost agentic AI impact:
Finding your AI problem
Creating a clear AI plan
Integrating AI with the tools you use everyday
META
✂️ Meta trims 600 jobs across AI division
Image source: Reve / The Rundown
The Rundown: Meta just eliminated roughly 600 positions across its AI division, according to a memo from Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang — with the company’s FAIR research arm reportedly impacted but its superintelligence group TBD Lab left intact.
The details:
Wang told employees the reductions would create smaller teams requiring fewer approvals, with those cut encouraged to apply to other Meta positions.
Cuts targeted Meta‘s FAIR research unit, product teams, and infrastructure groups, while sparing TBD Lab, which Wang oversees directly.
The company has continued its aggressive recruiting from rivals, recently hiring OAI scientist Ananya Kumar and TML co-founder Andrew Tulloch.
The moves follow friction earlier this month when FAIR researchers, including AI pioneer Yann LeCun, pushed back on new publication review requirements.
Why it matters: Meta’s superintelligence poaching and major restructure was the talk of the summer, but there has been tension brewing between the new hires and old guard. With Wang and co. looking to move fast and pave an entirely new path for the tech giant’s AI plans, the traditional FAIR researchers may be caught in the crossfire.
QUICK HITS
📰 Everything else in AI today
Anthropic is reportedly negotiating a multibillion-dollar cloud computing deal with Google that would provide access to custom TPU chips, building on Google’s existing $3B investment.
Reddit filed a lawsuit against Perplexity and three other data-scraping companies, accusing them of circumventing protections to steal copyrighted content for AI training.
Tencent open-sourced Hunyuan World 1.1, an AI model that creates 3D reconstructed worlds from videos or multiple photos in seconds on a single GPU.
Conversational AI startup Sesame opened beta access for its iOS app featuring a voice assistant that can “search, text, and think,” also announcing a new $250M raise.
Google announced that its Willow quantum chip achieved a major milestone by running an algorithm on hardware 13,000x faster than top supercomputers.
COMMUNITY
🤝 Community AI workflows
Every newsletter, we showcase how a reader is using AI to work smarter, save time, or make life easier.
Today’s workflow comes from reader Anonymous in Loveland, CO:
“As a new product developer (physical products), I have always wanted to draft and file my own patents. Using both ChatGPT and Gemini in tandem, I have been able to generate my own claims sets as well as professional line drawings. Once complete, I ask the LLMs to act as my ‘seasoned patent attorney’ and review everything for accuracy. I then turn it over to my attorney for final review, for now.”
How do you use AI? Tell us here.
🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events
Read our last AI newsletter: OpenAI enters browser war with Atlas
Read our last Tech newsletter: 'ChatGPT for doctors' hits $6B
Read our last Robotics newsletter: Unitree's 'bionic face' humanoid
Today’s AI tool guide: Create an email campaign generator with Build
RSVP to our next workshop @ 4PM EST Friday: Learn context engineering
See you soon,
Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — the humans behind The Rundown
OpenAI enters browser war with Atlas
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Good morning, AI enthusiasts. The AI browser war just got its most credible challenger yet, with OpenAI unveiling ‘Atlas’ with agent capabilities, memory features, and deep integrations throughout.
The AI leader’s long-awaited release is here, entering a crowded field with one major advantage — the ChatGPT brand. But is it enough to get users to take the leap away from the comforts of their traditional browsers?
In today’s AI rundown:
OpenAI enters browser war with Atlas
Anthropic, Amodei respond to government criticism
Ship ideas faster with Claude Code Web
Origin AI predicts disease risk in embryos
4 new AI tools, community workflows, and more
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
OPENAI
🌐 OpenAI enters browser war with Atlas
Image source: OpenAI
The Rundown: OpenAI just rolled out Atlas, a new AI browser that embeds ChatGPT into the web experience — letting the assistant see what users are looking at, remember sites, and leverage agentic capabilities to complete tasks across the internet.
The details:
Atlas is “built with ChatGPT at its core,” featuring a sidebar assistant as well as integrations via search, personalizations, and functions like Agent mode.
The browser includes optional "memories" that let ChatGPT remember details from visited sites to personalize future responses and automate routine tasks.
Agent mode enables ChatGPT to click and complete web tasks autonomously within Atlas, with the functionality initially limited to Plus and Pro subscribers.
OAI implemented safety guardrails preventing Atlas from downloading, accessing apps, or taking actions on sensitive sites without explicit permission.
Atlas is initially Mac-only in preview for Plus, Pro, and Business tiers, allowing users to import bookmarks, history, and other data from their browsers.
Why it matters: We’ve heard rumblings about OAI’s browser ambitions for a year, and the time has finally come. Atlas immediately threatens Comet, Dia, and other early AI browser entrants, though it doesn’t feel like a release with any groundbreaking functionalities (yet) that will push users to switch from traditional options permanently.
TOGETHER WITH GLEAN
🚀 Your guide to building enterprise-ready AI agents
The Rundown: The Glean X AWS Guide to Building AI Agents for the Enterprise is a practical playbook to go from assistants to autonomous agents that handle real work end‑to‑end.
Inside, you’ll learn about:
How to define agent instructions
Setting guardrails and evaluating performance
Managing orchestration at scale
Get the guide to build, govern, and scale agents with confidence.
ANTHROPIC
🇺🇸 Anthropic, Amodei respond to government criticism
Image source: Reve / The Rundown
The Rundown: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei released a statement affirming the company’s commitment to working with the U.S. and “American AI leadership,” coming on the heels of a series of critical comments on X from U.S. AI czar David Sacks.
The details:
Amodei highlighted the company’s $200M Department of War contract and widespread federal Claude access to “set the record straight” on policy.
The startup also pointed to research showing Claude demonstrating less of a political slant than competing models to push back on claims of bias.
Sacks had characterized Anthropic as pushing "regulatory capture" to hurt smaller competition, sparking heated exchanges with investor Reid Hoffman.
Sacks also referenced previous comments from Amodei calling Trump a “feudal warlord,” saying Anthropic positioned itself as a “foe” of the administration.
Why it matters: Frontier labs are navigating a delicate balance between staying true to safety principles while maneuvering to secure government contracts and policy influence. With the tech now intertwining with the global power structure, the importance of political positioning within the industry is only going to grow.
AI TRAINING
⚡ Ship ideas faster with Claude Code Web
The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to use the new Claude Code Web to analyze your codebase, implement features in parallel, and ship changes directly from your browser without switching between tools.
Step-by-step:
Visit claude.ai/code with your Pro/Max account, connect GitHub via OAuth, select "Trusted Network Access", then choose your project repository
Prompt: "Analyze this codebase. Provide: project description, code quality assessment, five feature ideas, and refactoring priorities as a structured report"
Start multiple sessions in the left panel to build features simultaneously - keep them in separate files/modules to avoid conflicts (e.g., "Add profile editing to /components/Profile.jsx" in one, "Implement email notifications in /api" in another)
Review with: "As a senior engineer, review the profile editing feature for code quality, security vulnerabilities, and test gaps. Implement necessary updates"
Click "Create PR" in the chat interface, and Claude generates formatted diffs and descriptions, then merges directly in GitHub without conflicts
Pro tip: Use the "Open in CLI" feature to get a command that connects your local terminal to the Claude Code session. This lets you continue the conversation locally with full IDE integration.
PRESENTED BY POSTMAN
📙 Are your APIs AI-ready?
The Rundown: Postman’s State of the API Report reveals critical data on how generative AI, governance, and strategic scaling are transforming the software development lifecycle for engineering leaders.
89% of devs use AI, but few design for agents.
65% of organizations now generate revenue from APIs.
51% cite unauthorized AI agent access as a top security risk
Get the report, including a 90-Day AI Playbook.
AI & GENETICS
🧬 Origin AI predicts disease risk in embryos
Image source: Reve / The Rundown
The Rundown: Nucleus Genomics just released Origin, a suite of AI models that analyze embryonic DNA to predict risks for Alzheimer’s, cancers, and diabetes — also open-sourcing the technology in a first for the IVF industry.
The details:
Origin scans 7M genetic markers using algorithms trained on 1.5M people, claiming to reduce disease risks by over 50%.
Parents can screen embryos for nine conditions and 2,000 genetic traits with an “IVF+” package starting at $30,000, with partnerships in several major cities.
Conditions able to be predicted include prostate and breast cancer, Alzheimer’s, Type 1 and 2 Diabetes, heart diseases, and more.
The startup also launched a Genetic Optimization Hub with access to data, models, and metrics, marking the first open-weights system for the sector.
Why it matters: While the price point certainly doesn’t make the screening accessible to the average person, the open-weights release will hopefully allow others to bring AI’s predictive capabilities to a new era of reproductive genetics — though the ethics behind the tech (especially given the price) will continue to be controversial.
QUICK HITS
🛠️ Trending AI Tools
🌐 Atlas - OpenAI’s new AI-integrated web browser
👁️ DeepSeek OCR - Compress long text for LLMs by treating it as an image
⚙️ Build Mode - New AI-first vibe coding in Google’s AI Studio with Gemini
🎥 Krea Realtime - Create, modify, restyle videos via a near-instant stream
📰 Everything else in AI today
Google AI Studio launched a new vibe coding update, enabling users to build and deploy web apps in minutes via natural language prompts on the platform.
Runway introduced Model Fine-tuning, giving users the new ability to customize the company’s generative video models on their own data and for specific use cases.
Manus released version 1.5 of its AI agent platform, with upgrades including 4x faster task completion, full-stack web development capabilities, and more.
OpenEvidence is raising $200M at a $6B valuation for its “ChatGPT for Doctors” style AI platform trained on medical journals and literature for trusted clinical answers.
Britain’s Channel 4 aired the country’s first TV program hosted by an AI presenter in a segment titled ‘Will AI Take My Job?’, with the use of the tech being revealed at the end to show “how disruptive AI has the potential to be”.
Google launched Skills, a learning platform featuring 3,000 AI and technical courses, with gamified features and employment pathways through company partnerships.
Lovable rolled out a new integration with Shopify, allowing users to build and launch online stores on the platform using natural language prompts.
COMMUNITY
🤝 Community AI workflows
Every newsletter, we showcase how a reader is using AI to work smarter, save time, or make life easier.
Today’s workflow comes from reader Lorna C. in Canada:
"I'm a college professor who decided to drop my old habits of policing and enforcing AI use in my classroom and embrace it. I use Nectir AI and created an AI teaching assistant for my students. I uploaded all my classroom materials, syllabus, and course content, and prompted it to use only my materials (no general knowledge) and not provide any answers, but instead, ask prompting questions. It feels like having an extra teaching partner who will help students learn and not cheat.”
How do you use AI? Tell us here.
🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events
Read our last AI newsletter: Sora breaks bad with Hollywood
Read our last Tech newsletter: 'ChatGPT for doctors' hits $6B
Read our last Robotics newsletter: Unitree’s ‘bionic face’ humanoid
Today’s AI tool guide: Ship ideas with Claude Code Web
RSVP to our next workshop @ 4PM EST Friday: Learn context engineering
See you soon,
Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — the humans behind The Rundown
'ChatGPT for doctors' hits $6B
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Good morning, tech enthusiasts. OpenEvidence just hit a $6B valuation — nearly doubling in three months — as its clinical AI becomes medicine’s new brain trust.
Trained solely on peer-reviewed journals, it’s already in use by 40% of U.S. doctors. Now, this Miami startup aims to build the first true medical superintelligence.
In today’s tech rundown:
‘ChatGPT for doctors’ hits $6B valuation
Amazon nearly breaks the internet
Waymo under fire for school bus incident
Smart glasses help blind patients see
Quick hits on other tech news
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
OPENEVIDENCE
🩺 ‘ChatGPT for doctors’ hits $6B valuation
Image source: Reve / OpenEvidence
The Rundown: OpenEvidence — the so-called “ChatGPT for doctors” — just pulled off a stunning leap in valuation, raising $200M at a $6B valuation just three months after its previous round pegged it at $3.5B.
The details:
The Miami-based startup has built a clinical AI, now used by over 40% of U.S. doctors and more than 10K hospitals for rapid, evidence-backed answers.
Its AI is trained exclusively on peer-reviewed medical literature from journals like NEJM and JAMA to deliver fully sourced, evidence-based answers.
Founded by Harvard-trained economist Daniel Nadler, OpenEvidence has drawn comparisons to Google Search — but for medicine.
The platform conducts millions of consultations monthly, synthesizing data from 35M medical papers; an ad-supported model keeps it free for doctors.
Why it matters: The company’s $6B leap in under a year shows where investor conviction seems to be heading: AI tailored for high-stakes, professional use over generalist chatbots. When your product becomes the default in life-or-death decisions, you’re defining what trusted machine intelligence really means.
AMAZON
☄️ Amazon nearly breaks the internet
Image source: Reve / The Rundown
The Rundown: An obscure glitch buried deep in Amazon Web Services' DynamoDB database triggered one of this year’s most sweeping internet blackouts Monday, taking down everything from Slack and Zoom to financial trading platforms.
The details:
By Monday evening, roughly 15 hours after the chaos began, AWS said it had resolved the crisis, though some customers continued reporting problems.
The malfunction traced back to a DNS resolution error in AWS’s Northern Virginia data center, which powers a staggering portion of the internet.
Slack, Zoom, Signal, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Reddit, Fortnite, Coinbase, Delta, Perplexity, and The New York Times, among others, all went dark or degraded.
Services that don’t even use DynamoDB went down too, in a cascading failure that exposed just how tightly wired AWS’s infrastructure really is.
Why it matters: AWS controls 30% of the cloud market — but on Monday, a single DNS glitch in one Virginia data center triggered global chaos, reportedly costing hundreds of billions of dollars. The outage showed just how quickly a single misstep in a data-center control layer can ripple across the world.
WAYMO
🚍 Waymo under fire for school bus incident
Image source: Waymo
The Rundown: Federal regulators launched a probe into Waymo after one of its fully driverless robotaxis was caught overtaking a stopped school bus unloading children in Atlanta — a move that would earn a human driver a $1K fine.
The details:
The NHTSA says it’s reviewing the performance of about 2K Waymo robotaxis equipped with the company’s fifth‑gen autonomous driving system.
Footage shows the robotaxi approaching from a side street and then driving around the school bus, despite an extended stop sign and flashing red lights.
The bus, Waymo says, was partially blocking a driveway exit, and the vehicle’s sensors couldn’t detect the warning signals due to obstruction.
It’s the third NHTSA investigation into Waymo’s software in under two years, and regulators warn the likelihood of similar events is “high.”
Why it matters: The case piles fresh scrutiny on Alphabet’s autonomous driving arm, which has logged more than 10M driverless rides and is currently expanding to new markets, including Washington, D.C., and Miami. Waymo insists safety is its top priority and says it has already rolled out an update to better handle school bus scenarios.
TECH FOR GOOD
👓 Smart glasses help blind patients see
Image source: Science Corporation
The Rundown: Several dozen people blinded by macular degeneration just got a digital assist: a microscopic eye implant linked to AI-powered smart glasses that literally beams vision back into the brain.
The details:
A new study in The New England Journal of Medicine found the system restored sight to patients with advanced age-related macular degeneration.
In the trial of 38 patients, 80% regained the ability to recognize shapes, letters, and words; some could even read and complete crossword puzzles.
The implant, a mere 2mm chip, converts infrared light into electrical signals that stimulate surviving retinal neurons.
The smart glasses work as a camera and a projector, capturing real-world scenes and instantly beaming them as infrared pulses to the sub-retinal chip.
Why it matters: The vision isn't perfect — grayscale, pixelated, with patients improving five lines on an eye chart after one year. But this is the first proof you can bypass a degenerating retina entirely and wire external sensors directly into the visual system, turning a form of blindness into an engineering problem we're learning to solve.
QUICK HITS
📰 Everything else in tech today
Meta-owned WhatsApp updated its Business API policy to ban general-purpose AI chatbots from the platform starting January 15, 2026.
Apple’s new iOS 26.1 beta adds a “Tinted” option that lets users make the Liquid Glass interface less glassy, toning down its transparency for better contrast.
South Korea’s Innospace received final approval to launch its first commercial rocket, the HANBIT‑Nano, as early as November from Brazil’s Alcântara Space Center.
Chinese customers filed an antitrust complaint accusing Apple of abusing its dominance by forcing app downloads and payments through the App Store.
Swiss researchers created a fully compostable computer mouse using wood‑based circuit boards made from biodegradable lignocellulose.
Oura announced a major app redesign with new “Cumulative Stress” tracking, while seeking FDA clearance for blood pressure tech that estimates users’ hypertension risk.
A United Airlines passenger plane flying from Denver to LA struck a high‑altitude weather balloon, shattering the cockpit windshield and injuring one of the pilots.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX crossed the 10K Starlink satellite launch milestone Sunday with dual Falcon 9 missions carrying 56 satellites.
Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian says AI has made much of the internet feel “dead,” and sees the next wave of social media focusing on real, verifiable human connections.
Kohler's new $599 Dekoda toilet sensor uses optical AI to scan waste for blood, hydration, and gut health, its first product in its Kohler Health wellness line.
COMMUNITY
🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events
Read our last AI newsletter: Sora breaks bad with Hollywood
Read our last Tech newsletter: Apple may finally embrace touch
Read our last Robotics newsletter: Unitree's 'bionic face' humanoid
Today’s AI tool guide: Automate performance reviews and PIPs
RSVP to our next workshop @ 4PM EST Friday: Learn context engineering
See you soon,
Rowan, Jennifer, and Joey—The Rundown’s editorial team
Sora breaks bad with Hollywood
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Good morning, AI enthusiasts. OpenAI’s Sora AI platform has seemingly been breaking bad on celebrity likenesses since its launch — but Bryan Cranston just made it literal.
With a new joint statement from the AI leader and Hollywood agencies that vows to tighten guardrails, one of the AI video app’s biggest viral strengths is quickly becoming a liability.
In today’s AI rundown:
OpenAI to tighten Sora guardrails after Hollywood complaints
Anthropic brings Claude Code to the browser
Automate performance reviews and PIPs
Napster pivots to AI with holograhphic companions
4 new AI tools, community workflows, and more
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
OPENAI
📺 OpenAI to tighten Sora guardrails after Hollywood complaints
Image source: Reve / The Rundown
The Rundown: OpenAI just released a joint statement alongside actor Bryan Cranston, major Hollywood agencies, and the SAG-AFTRA union, saying it will ‘strengthen guardrails’ on Sora 2 over replication of celebrity’s likenesses and voices.
The details:
Cranston found AI videos of himself circulating on Sora 2, including one showing him taking selfies with Michael Jackson — despite never opting in.
OpenAI apologized for the “unintentional generations”, vowing to implement stronger guardrails in a “productive collaboration” with the union and agencies.
The statement also rallied support for the NO FAKES Act, calling for protections against unauthorized AI replicas of performers' voices and likenesses.
SAG-AFTRA President Sean Astin warned that Cranston represents "countless performers" at risk, calling opt-ins "the only way to do business" with AI firms.
Why it matters: Sora has been breaking bad (🥁) since launch, and it’s no surprise to see action from estates like Martin Luther King Jr. and now Cranston. While there have been opt-ins from celebrities like Mark Cuban, much of the virality of the platform has been built on what now feels like a very murky legal area for AI and digital likenesses.
TOGETHER WITH MBZUAI
🧠 The new standard in open-source reasoning
The Rundown: Meet K2 Think: the open-source reasoning system setting a new benchmark for AI. With only 32B parameters, it delivers performance on par with flagship models 20X larger and at unprecedented speed — combining efficiency, transparency, and power into one breakthrough model.
With K2 Think, you’ll experience:
The top-ranked model on global math benchmarks
Compact, fast performance at 2,000 tokens/second
A system ready-to-use on Hugging Face today
ANTHROPIC
⚙️ Anthropic brings Claude Code to the browser
Image source: Claude
The Rundown: Anthropic just introduced Claude Code on the web in research preview, allowing developers to code directly from browsers instead of in a terminal — with the agentic assistant also able to handle multiple tasks at once in the cloud.
The details:
Users can connect GitHub repositories and assign tasks, with the coding assistant able to run several instances at once with real-time progress tracking.
Each coding session happens in its own isolated workspace, preventing any single task from accessing files or networks outside its designated boundaries.
Pro and Max users can now access Claude Code via browser or iOS app, assigning tasks and getting automatic pull requests when work is complete.
Why it matters: Bringing Claude Code out of command-line tools feels like a massive convenience move for today’s on-the-go era of work, providing a streamlined experience for routine tasks. The web interface is also likely a more accessible way for less experienced users to experiment with the tool in a less intimidating interface.
AI TRAINING
💯 Automate performance reviews and PIPs
The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to connect ChatGPT to your Google Drive knowledge base and then use agent mode to automatically transform messy employee notes into structured performance reviews and improvement plans.
Step-by-step:
Create a Google Doc called "Employee Review" with rough notes for each employee (name, role, KPIs, feedback)
In ChatGPT, click "+" → "Connected apps" and enable Google Drive access
Prompt with system instruction + templates: "Analyze my 'Employee Review' doc and create performance reviews and 30/60/90 PIPs using these formats: [paste templates with SMART goals structure]"
Enable Agent Mode and prompt: "Update the Employee Review doc with the structured sections for each person"
Schedule monthly automation: "Run third Saturday at 9 AM, update Employee Review doc from latest notes, regenerate reviews and PIPs"
Pro tip: Keep adding rough notes weekly — the scheduled agent consolidates and formats monthly. If the agent can't edit initially, grant permissions and re-run.
PRESENTED BY TEXTJAM
✍️ Write faster with your team and favorite AIs
The Rundown: TextJam is a multi-player AI editor with access to all leading AI models and novel tools that save time. Users can precisely control what AI keeps vs. changes using pen, pencil, and inline prompt tools – avoiding endless prompting and copy-paste.
Do your finest work faster, with TextJam:
Edit with teammates and AI in realtime — creativity loves company
Fit your writing to any length, with intuitive gestures
Seamlessly blend your words and the AIs, so it all sounds like... you
NAPSTER
🪞 Napster pivots to AI with holographic companions
Image source: Midjourney
The Rundown: Former file-sharing and music streaming service Napster just launched Napster 26, pivoting to an AI platform with a $99 holographic display that projects 3D AI assistants above Mac screens without the need for glasses.
The details:
The platform offers 15,000+ AI companions like coding specialists or wellness coaches, which appear as 3D holograms through the Napster View display.
Users can also create AI "digital twins" of themselves that Napster claims can attend meetings, answer questions, and manage an online presence.
The company was acquired for $207M this year by 3D technology firm Infinite Reality, which transitioned the music platform to an AI companion product.
Napster 26 launches for Mac with subscriptions starting at $19 monthly and the View hardware priced at $99 or coming free with annual plans.
Why it matters: While Napster’s brand may evoke nostalgia for the 90’s kids, this is a pretty wild “rebrand”. AI companies have been pushing AI that can view user’s actions, and this hologram takes that experience very literal — though given xAI’s Grok companion moves, there may be more of a market for this experience than we think.
QUICK HITS
🛠️ Trending AI Tools
⚙️ Claude Code - Anthropic’s agentic coding assistant, now available on web
🤖 Lindy AI CMO - A marketing team powered by AI agents
🐠 Fish Audio S1 - Expressive text-to-speech model with voice cloning
💨 Claude 4.5 Haiku - Anthropic’s new small, cost-efficient model
📰 Everything else in AI today
Anthropic launched Claude for Life Sciences with new scientific platform connectors, AI skills for lab protocols, and improved performance on biomedical tasks.
Researchers found that LLMs can develop "brain rot" when exposed to low-quality web content, losing reasoning, memory, and safety skills that stay even after retraining.
Krea open-sourced its realtime-video model, a 14B parameter system allowing users to create, modify, and restyle video outputs via a near-instant stream.
Elon Musk announced that xAI is postponing the launch of Grokipedia to the end of the week, saying more work still needs to be done to “purge out the propaganda.”
DeepSeek released DeepSeek OCR, a tool that compresses image-based docs 10x while retaining 97% of the information, enabling AI models to handle much longer files.
Wikipedia revealed that its page views have dropped 8% in the last year, attributing the decrease to AI models scraping content over directly visiting the site.
COMMUNITY
🤝 Community AI workflows
Every newsletter, we showcase how a reader is using AI to work smarter, save time, or make life easier.
Today’s workflow comes from reader Carolyn B. in the United States:
"I teach asynchronous courses and I use AI across all aspects of my work, from generated subject matter content, instructional design of student learning experiences, storyboarding media and interactive assets, styling HTML/CSS to produce elegant inviting course pages, configuring and embedding chatbots to support student engagement, evaluating student submissions, numerous admin tasks…, and analyzing the effectiveness of all of the above."
How do you use AI? Tell us here.
🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events
Read our last AI newsletter: Karpathy's AI agent reality check
Read our last Tech newsletter: Apple may finally embrace touch
Read our last Robotics newsletter: Unitree's 'bionic face' humanoid
Today’s AI tool guide: Automate performance reviews and PIPs
RSVP to our next workshop @ 4PM EST Friday: Learn context engineering
See you soon,
Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — the humans behind The Rundown
Unitree's 'bionic face' humanoid
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Good morning, robotics enthusiasts. Unitree just dropped a clip of its new H2 humanoid performing a strangely elegant modern dance — complete with a humanlike face.
Beneath the spectacle: 31 joints and enough coordination to pull off complex choreography. The real question isn't whether it moves well — it does — but whether looking creepily human is the way forward.
In today’s robotics rundown:
Unitree debuts H2 humanoid with bionic face
Honor unveils Robot Phone concept
Caltech’s X1 humanoid launches flying drone
Texas robot farm watches the stars
Quick hits on other robotics news
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
UNITREE
🤖 Unitree debuts H2 humanoid with bionic face
Image source: Unitree
The Rundown: Unitree just unveiled the H2, a humanoid that’s leaning harder into looking human. At 180 cm tall and 70 kg, with a more lifelike face, it’s still unmistakably a machine — just one that’s trying not to look like one.
The details:
The H2 reportedly features 31 joints, a 19% increase from the previous R1 model, enabling greater flexibility and smoother movement.
Demo footage shows the robot performing complex dance and martial arts sequences with remarkable agility, balance, and fluid joint articulation.
The H2’s “bionic face” remains mostly mysterious — for now it reads as a mask— but shows Unitree’s intent to chase humanlike appearance.
Unitree’s previous model, the H1, became the first full-sized Chinese humanoid capable of running, setting a world record at 3.3 meters per second.
Why it matters: Unitree’s betting that looking human matters as much as moving like one. Full specs aren’t out yet, but if the H2 inherits the H1’s advanced spatial awareness — 3D lidar and depth cameras for 360° perception — it’ll back up its lifelike exterior with the sensors needed to navigate complex real-world environments.
HONOR
🤳🏽 Honor unveils Robot Phone concept
Image source: Honor
The Rundown: Chinese smartphone maker Honor just teased its “Robot Phone,” a smartphone with a gimbal-mounted camera that unfolds from the rear on a robotic arm, capable of capturing photos and video from multiple angles autonomously.
The details:
Honor calls it an “emotional companion” and part of its Alpha Plan progression “from iPhone, to AI Phone, to Robot Phone.”
The camera moves autonomously into various positions, with applications from subject tracking to astrophotography.
The Robot Phone is central to Honor’s $10B, five-year investment to transform into an AI device company.
No working prototype exists yet (only CGI renders for now) with full details expected at Mobile World Congress Barcelona in 2026.
Why it matters: The industry shifted from pop-up cameras due to durability and water resistance concerns, and Honor’s three-axis gimbal raises similar questions about mechanical complexity and drop survival. But if the engineering holds up, the payoff is real: professional-grade stabilization and creative angles no fixed camera can deliver.
CALTECH
🔥 Caltech's X1 humanoid launches flying drone
Image source: Caltech / YouTube
The Rundown: Caltech’s new X1 is a Transformer-like humanoid that walks, carries a drone, and launches it mid-stride. Combining a modified Unitree G1 with Caltech’s M4 hybrid drone, it merges walking and aerial flight into one fluid robotic system.
The details:
The humanoid base carries the M4 on its back, launching it mid-mission to fly over obstacles before converting into a wheeled vehicle on landing.
Both robots integrate lidar, cameras, and AI-powered pathfinding to navigate autonomously through unpredictable terrain without human input.
Control algorithms from Aaron Ames’s lab at Caltech enable stable walking with dynamic load balancing, even when carrying the drone across uneven ground.
Built for search and rescue and field robotics, X1 shows how merging locomotion modes could redefine autonomy for real-world missions.
Why it matters: Most robots excel at one thing — walking, flying, or rolling — forcing teams to deploy multiple units for complex terrain. X1 proves a single platform can dynamically switch between modes on demand, potentially cutting the cost and coordination overhead of multi-robot missions.
STARFRONT
🔭 Texas robot farm watches the stars
Image source: Starfront Observatories
The Rundown: In just 18 months, Starfront Observatories in rural Rockwood, Texas, has grown into one of the world’s largest robotic telescope farms, hosting over 550 telescopes beneath some of the darkest skies in the U.S., the New York Times reports.
The details:
Each telescope is internet-connected and remotely controlled, letting researchers worldwide capture high-quality deep-sky images from a laptop.
The facility’s 11 climate-controlled, retractable-roof buildings are engineered for rapid automation, with telescopes that align and track targets autonomously.
Amateurs pay from $99 per month for access, democratizing pristine dark skies that typically require major travel or institutional backing.
The system manages operations automatically — from weather shutdowns to calibration — with no human needed on site.
Why it matters: Starfront is astronomy’s server farm — 550 robotic telescopes operating autonomously, coordinating exposures and weather responses without human presence. It proves that with enough networked hardware and reliable automation, amateur astronomers don’t need fly to remote deserts to stargaze.
QUICK HITS
📰 Everything else in robotics today
Chinese robotics company UBTECH has landed a $17.3M deal to build an AI-powered humanoid testing facility in Guangxi province.
German startup NEURA Robotics has opened its NEURA Hub in Hangzhou, a new Asian center for training and data collection aimed at closing robotics’ vast data gap.
AiMOGA Robotics’ humanoid Mornine delivered a multilingual, fully autonomous presentation at the 2025 Chery Global Innovation Conference.
University of Maryland’s RoboScout Team tested robotic drones, robot dogs, and medics in a simulated natural disaster to find, triage, and treat critically injured people.
Shenzhen-based LimX Dynamics has impressed with a 52-second video showing two Oli humanoids performing synchronized full-body stretch routines.
North Carolina State University has developed flat, motor-free “metabots” that fold, crawl, and grasp objects — shape-shifting into hundreds of stable forms.
Chinese startup Booster Robotics dropped a clip of its “all new” K1 humanoid, showing a compact robot running and playing in a park with a group of children.
Chinese robotaxi firm Pony AI has partnered with Stellantis to test and deploy autonomous taxis across Europe, beginning with pilot programs in Luxembourg.
UC San Diego researchers built soft vine-like robots wrapped in liquid crystal elastomer actuators that steer by adjusting internal air pressure and heat.
UK researchers created a Venom-inspired soft robot made from electro‑morphing gel, a jelly-like material that bends, stretches, and shape-shifts under electric fields.
COMMUNITY
🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events
Read our last AI newsletter: Karpathy's AI agent reality check
Read our last Tech newsletter: Apple may finally embrace touch
Read our last Robotics newsletter: Waymo robotaxis head to London
Today’s AI tool guide: Reverse-engineer winning ads to create AI videos
RSVP to our next workshop @ 4PM EST Friday: Context Engineering
See you soon,
Rowan, Jennifer, and Joey—The Rundown’s editorial team
Karpathy's AI agent reality check
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Good morning, AI enthusiasts. The “Year of AI Agents” prophecy came true, in certain respects — agents are everywhere, in every product, pitched by every company. But according to Andrej Karpathy, they don’t actually work.
The respected researcher just delivered a reality check, calling current agent output “slop” and saying the tech needs another decade to deliver on its hype-filled promises.
In today’s AI rundown:
Karpathy gives reality check on AI agents
Gemini gains live map grounding capabilities
Reverse-engineer winning ads to create high-quality AI videos
Anthropic co-founder: AI is a ‘real and mysterious creature’
4 new AI tools, community workflows, and more
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
OPENAI
🛑 Karpathy gives reality check on AI agents
Image source: The Dwarkesh Podcast
The Rundown: Former OpenAI and Tesla researcher Andrej Karpathy threw cold water on the AI agent hype during an interview with Dwarkesh Patel, projecting a decade-long timeline before autonomous AI systems can deliver on current promises.
The details:
Karpathy believes industry messaging is overselling current agentic coding capabilities that output “slop,” saying the models “aren’t there yet.”
He said that agents “just don't work” due to fundamental gaps like insufficient intelligence, multimodal limitations, and lack of continual learning.
Karpathy also called reinforcement learning “terrible” and “noise,” but it looks good because “everything we had before it is much worse.”
Elon Musk challenged Karpathy on X to compete against Grok 5, though Karpathy said he’d rather collaborate with the model than compete against it.
Why it matters: As one of the most respected researchers in AI, Karpathy’s words hold significant weight — and provide a major technical reality check to the “Year of the AI Agent” hype. But despite the harsh critiques, it’s also possible that systems that fail to impress a top mind are still massively productive for the other 99% of users.
TOGETHER WITH SAMSARA
🚚 How AI could’ve saved the tequila
The Rundown: When 24,000 bottles of Guy Fieri’s tequila vanished on a highway, it proved one thing: visibility saves value. Samsara’s Complete AI Safety Solution uses AI dash cams, in-cab alerts, and coaching to detect risky or unauthorized activity before losses happen.
AI helps fleets:
Detect unsafe or off-route behavior
Prevent theft and crashes in real time
Protect drivers, assets, and cargo
Access the report and see how AI prevents risk before it happens.
📍Gemini gains live map grounding capabilities
Image source: Google Maps
The Rundown: Google just plugged Gemini into Maps, giving its AI direct access to real-world location data and letting developers tap the company's massive geographic intelligence trove.
The details:
The capability pulls from Google’s 250M venues worldwide, feeding Gemini current business hours, customer ratings, and venue specifics via API calls.
Developers can display interactive map widgets within their applications, preserving the Google Maps interface alongside AI-generated responses.
The system automatically IDs when geographic context enhances a query, retrieving relevant metadata without requiring triggers from users.
Pricing starts at $25 per thousand location-enhanced prompts, positioning the feature as a premium offering for enterprise apps.
Why it matters: This integration hands Google a competitive moat not easily replicable by rivals — the infusion of its already widely used mapping infrastructure into its advanced AI models. While the steep pricing may lend itself to more enterprise-focused needs, the combo opens a new level of location-aware AI-powered apps.
AI TRAINING
🚀 Reverse-engineer winning ads to create high-quality AI videos
The Rundown: Create professional marketing videos with Sora 2 by analyzing successful UGC ads, converting them to JSON formats, and generating polished AI videos that match proven patterns.
Step-by-step:
Search TikTok/Instagram for winning UGC ads in your niche, download videos with strong hooks and clear product demos you want to emulate
Upload to Google AI Studio with Gemini 2.5 Pro and prompt: “Analyze this video shot by shot. Return strict JSON with: scene, description, camera_angles, transitions, voice transcript, on-screen text. Constrain to 15 seconds”
Paste JSON in ChatGPT to adapt: “Take this JSON and adapt to [your niche/product]. Keep camera angles and pacing. Replace script with [your messaging]. Output Sora-compatible JSON”
Paste final JSON into Sora, generate, and review for script completion, logo fidelity, readable text, and clean transitions
Clean up with free tools: remove watermark, enhance speech with Adobe Podcast, upscale via Replicate, and strip AI metadata using video remixer
Pro Tip: Regardless if you’re on the free or paid plan for Sora, I’d recommend cleaning up your video in order to stand out on the “For You page,” as our feeds are dominated by AI video slop that can easily be identified as AI and not marketing-grade content.
PRESENTED BY IBM
🌐 Redefining Network Intelligence with AI
The Rundown: IBM Network Intelligence introduces a new human-AI model that blends analytical AI with “reasoning” AI — a dual approach developed to help enterprises filter noise, identify issues, and scale operations seamlessly.
With IBM Network Intelligence, you’ll experience:
Fast, accurate insights
AI that scales while humans guide strategy
Less tool bloat, more efficiency
AI RESEARCH
✍️ Anthropic co-founder: AI is a ‘real and mysterious creature’
Image source: Reve / The Rundown
The Rundown: Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark published a new essay titled “Technological Optimism and Appropriate Fear,” describing modern AI systems as mysterious entities exhibiting unexpected self-awareness rather than predictable tools.
The details:
Clark cautioned against considering AI just a tool, saying “what we are dealing with is a real and mysterious creature, not a simple and predictable machine.”
He said the recently launched Sonnet 4.5’s situational awareness has grown, and now “acts as though it is aware it is a tool.”
Despite calling himself a “technology optimist,” Clark said he's “deeply afraid” — especially of AI models helping design their own successors.
Clark believes AI firms need to “do a better job of listening” to concerns from the public and expand the conversation beyond tech elites.
Why it matters: Anthropic has been one of the few frontier labs truly considering the idea of AI as a “being” instead of simply a machine, and its co-founder’s latest words only reaffirm that — though hearing words like “deeply afraid” and “mysterious creatures” from a frontier leader likely won’t help reassure AI safety advocates.
QUICK HITS
📰 Everything else in AI today
Uber is launching “digital tasks” in its driver app, letting U.S. drivers earn extra cash by completing simple AI training work like uploading menus or recording audio samples.
Elon Musk revealed that he estimates the probability of xAI’s upcoming Grok 5 model achieving AGI is “10% and rising.”
OpenAI announced the pause of video generations featuring Martin Luther King Jr. on Sora following a request from the King estate.
Anthrogen unveiled Odyssey, a 102B parameter protein language model that uses a new “Consensus” architecture to design and optimize proteins more efficiently than traditional approaches.
Meta announced new parental controls coming in 2026 that will let parents block teens' chats with AI characters on Instagram and monitor conversation topics.
COMMUNITY
🤝 Community AI workflows
Every newsletter, we showcase how a reader is using AI to work smarter, save time, or make life easier.
Today’s workflow comes from reader Barry in Australia:
“I’m a performance marketing manager for a global brand, and started using a new workflow for reporting. I use Gemini/ChatGPT/Claude with a fixed prompt with my specific needs and also provided my past framework on insights. I provide 3 different Google analytics screenshots along with some Google ads data and run the prompt. I then use that insights and paste it in a Notion database with the week. On a quarterly basis I ask Notion AI to find trends and insights based on my weekly insights. I've been able to find so many helpful and informative insights with this workflow, both on a weekly and quarterly basis.”
How do you use AI? Tell us here.
🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events
Read our last AI newsletter: Claude gains new Skills
Read our last Tech newsletter: Apple may finally embrace touch
Read our last Robotics newsletter: Waymo robotaxis head to London
Today’s AI tool guide: Reverse-engineer winning ads to create AI videos
RSVP to our next workshop @ 4PM EST Friday: Context Engineering
See you soon,
Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — the humans behind The Rundown
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